Deep cuts made to CDC’s MMWR publication reversed hours later

WASHINGTON — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff behind the agency’s flagship publication had suffered deep cuts as part of the firings the Health and Human Services Department has blamed on the government shutdown, according to five people familiar with the situation. But as of Saturday evening, the terminations appeared to have been rescinded.

An HHS official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said workers who produce Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report may have mistakenly received reduction-in-force notices because of coding errors in their job classifications. 

Earlier on Saturday, almost the entire staff of MMWR, known as the “voice of the CDC,” had been laid off, former publication editor-in-chief Charlotte Kent told STAT in her first public interview since she left the agency in February. Four other people with familiarity with the cuts also confirmed that MMWR staff had been axed.